A/N: As I have mentioned in my short-story compilation, "Children Disowned By Time", I have written my own "novelization" of the Fire Emblem: Awakening story. Though, this one has a slight twist as is mentioned in the story's summary. This fanfiction is heavily based off of my second and third playthrough of Fire Emblem: Awakening, so the hinted couples from "Children Disowned By Time" are not in this one. I also deter anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled about the game from reading this fanfic. Go play the game and come back when you're ready! If you don't mind spoilers, then carry on and enjoy the story.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FIRE EMBLEM: AWAKENING NOR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS USED BESIDES THE MAIN CHARACTERS, VIENNA AND KAIN! THIS WAS WRITTEN PURELY FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES!

Invisible Ties

Flashes of lightning and purple flame flew through the air, colliding against the surfaces of walls, ceiling and flooring as the two spell casters danced around each other. The taller of the two had dark skin that was gray-ish in color; his eyes shone with malicious intent as a hateful sneer distorted his sharp features. The other donned a hood and stood a tad bit smaller than the latter; the hood shielded the top half of her face, leaving her expression to mystery. But with the way her lips were pressed into a thin line was enough to show her determination. The two were locked in combat, tomes in hand, and neither one looked close to backing out.

"Validar," hissed the hooded spell caster. "I will see you defeated!"

The man, Validar, laughed, a sound that would break the courage of any man, but the hooded figure before him was not anywhere near ordinary. "We shall see about that."

At the exact same time, almost in complete unison, they both casted their spells; the magic colliding with each other, canceling each other out and creating a powerful explosion that sent both spell casters flying to the ground.

As she hit the ground, her hood fell back, revealing her delicate facial features, sharp brown eyes that shone with wisdom far beyond her years and an unruly amount of black hair that reached the middle of her neck. Upon impact, her Thoron tome skidded away from her, leaving her defenseless against Validar. She quickly scrambled to her feet to grab her book, when Validar summoned a ball of dark energy and targeted it straight for her.

But before the spell could connect, a blur of silver and blue collided against her body, putting her out of harm's way. Another explosion erupted from the floor where she once was, leaving behind a deep crater in its wake.

"Are you alright, Vienna?" asked her savior, his light blue eyes still trained on the dark mage that stood across the room.

"I'm fine," she mumbled. Vienna grabbed her tome from the stone floor and glared down at Validar. "Thank you, Chrom."

"Fools," bellowed Validar, rage glowing in his yellow eyes. "Die!"

With a thrust of his hand, he sent a wave of dark energy toward them. Vienna quickly intercepted the spell with another blast of lightning, canceling it out once more with a loud explosion. Once the dust cleared, Validar's eyes remained trained on Vienna - a look of irritation on his horrible face.

"This is it," said Chrom, his sword, Falchion, held out in front of him. "Our final battle." The prince glanced at Vienna and the look of absolute faith that shone in his eyes renewed her spirits almost instantly. "Vienna, you're one of us, and no "destiny" can change that. Now let's kill this dastard and be done with it!"

"I couldn't agree more," she mumbled. With a tome in one hand, Vienna unsheathed her sword from its scabbard and poised it in front of her.

From across the room, Validar only laughed at them - mocking them even when it was obvious that the odds were indeed against him. He had no reinforcements; he had no more of those monsters that he could summon to do his bidding. Yet, he had the gall to laugh at them, like he has already won. "Why do you resist?" he asked. "Accept your fate and I will give you a quick death!"

Chrom scowled at the dark mage before him. "I decline!"

With a loud battle roar, he surged forward and swung Falchion with all his might. Validar, now forced to enter close combat, unsheathed his own sword and met with Chrom's blows with inhumane agility for a man his age. The sound of metal scraping and clanging against each other filled the room as the two began their deadly dance. With each thrust and swing that Chrom threw at him, Validar was able to block. Every dirty trick that the old sorcerer tried to pull was thwarted by Chrom's quick reflexes; blocking the man's attempts to swipe under his feet by side-stepping at the last possible moment and slamming his elbow against Validar's chest, sending him stepping backwards and choking on his own breath.

Pure anger coursed through Validar's veins as he held out his tome and began to chant for his next spell. "Fools!" He sneered at the duo as a ring of glowing red spell circles appeared in the air and began to grow in size and number - his target, Vienna. "You can struggle all you want! You cannot unwrite what is already written!"

When the spell circle glowed its brightest, Vienna quickly thrusted her hand forward and shouted, "Thoron!"

A streak of lightning shot out of the tips of her fingers and collided with Validar's premature spell, disrupting the man's chanting and blocking his view with a large cloud of dust. Validar cursed as he frantically waved the dust from his eyes, but by the time his vision cleared, Chrom had already lunged forward with Falchion in hand. Unable to move any further, the blade sunk deep into Validar's flesh and pierced him through - a killing blow.

The sorcerer choked as he tried to gasp for breath, but Chrom only sank the sword deeper into the man's body before drawing it back and quickly retreating to Vienna's side.

"Checkmate," Vienna smirked, closing her tome with an audibly for emphasis.

Validar fell to his knees, the light dulling in his eyes before he fell face down to the floor, drawing his final breath.

For a moment, there was silence. Chrom and Vienna kept their eyes trained on the dark mage's body, searching for any sign that he was still alive. When they saw none, not even a rise of his chest, joy erupted from their hearts. They had won! The war was over and peace can return to the land!

Chrom faced Vienna, a grin - something she had not seen for ages - on his face. "We did it, Vienna! We won! And it's all thanks to you!"

The young woman felt a smile creep onto her face, then she saw something odd coming from Validar's "corpse": purple smoke.

Upon seeing the smile drop from her face, Chrom looked at her with concern, gently grabbing her arm to get her attention. "What's wrong?" He asked, but Vienna couldn't answer. Her eyes were trained on the odd smoke and glow that began to surround Validar's body. And the unthinkable happened.

Validar's body rose back up onto its knees and with a voice that resonated inside her mind, he growled. "This isn't over... Damn you both!"

The ground shook violently as Validar thrusted both of his hands forward and summoned an enormous ball of energy and sent it barreling toward Chrom. At the speed that it was going, Vienna knew that he didn't have a chance of dodging it and escape unscathed. But Chrom getting injured was out of the question! So Vienna took matters into her own hands.

She pushed Chrom out of the spell's trajectory and took the hit for him.

A searing hot pain coursed through her body as she was sent flying backwards, slamming into the castle's stone interior walls. Energy crackled around her body as she fell limp onto the floor, her strength sapped from her body. She felt numb, almost like, she was...fading away.

"Vienna!" Chrom dashed to her side. The azure-haired swordsman knelt down next to her and propped her up in his arms. "Are you all right?"

She wanted to say, "No" and slap the man silly for asking such a stupid question, but her head nodded on its own. Ever so slightly, she began to realize that something was very, very wrong.

"Good." Chrom slowly helped her get back on her feet and he smiled at her. He glanced back at Validar's body and scoffed. "That's the end of him," he glanced back at her and smiled. "Thanks to you we carried the day. We can rest easy now. At long last..."

Something was wrong. Vienna tried to focus on Chrom's words, but his voiced began to sound distant, like they were slowly moving away from each other step-by-step. A crackle of red magic passed through her vision.

No. Panic overwhelmed her senses. That wasn't magic. There's something else here! Something's inside me! Chrom! Quick! Get away from me while you still can!

She tried to scream his name, but her mouth remained shut. Her vision slowly began to turn red and she could feel her hand begin to conjure the Thoron spell.

Chrom noticed her odd behavior and he looked at her with concern. He had one hand wrapped around her waist as he tried to support her on her feet. "What's wrong? Hey, hang on-"

Sshk!

Vienna could only watch helplessly as she ran a spear of lightning through Chrom's chest. The look of shock in his eyes and how he looked at her like he didn't understand, it made her want to scream.

He began to stumble backwards. He grabbed at the lightning spell as if trying to pull it out. But what shattered her heart even more, wasn't the fact that he was in pain, that she had betrayed him - it was the forgiveness in his eyes that appeared when he locked his dulling gaze with hers.

"This...is not your...your fault," he choked out; his voice now barely even above a whisper. "Promise me that you'll escape from this place... Please, go..."

The light in his eyes disappeared as he fell face-down onto the ground. Chrom was dead. Vienna had murdered him.

A dark laughter rang in her ears, filling her mind, mocking her. She screamed, clutching her heard in her hands as she tried to block it out. Her left hand pulsing, sending arcs of red hot pain through her body.

Then it all went black.

Notes:
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